Tamatha Paul confirmed as Greens candidate for Wellington Central

City councillor Tamatha Paul has been selected as the Green Party’s candidate for the Wellington Central electorate.

At the start of the month she was endorsed by previous Wellington Central candidate and party leader, James Shaw, when he announced he would step back from the electorate race.

Paul’s selection has now been confirmed, after receiving unanimous support in a meeting on Thursday evening.

She is the only candidate confirmed for the Wellington Central electorate so far.

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Paul said she was “stoked”.

“I know what it’s like to work within systems and also how to recognise systems that need to change. Now it’s up to the people of Wellington to decide whether they want me to do that work as a city councillor or as their MP for Wellington Central.”

In the 2020 election, Labour’s Grant Robertson pulled almost 60% of the electorate vote, while National’s Nicola Willis brought in 17.9% and Shaw came in with 17.7% of the vote. In the 2017 election, Robertson got 49%, Willis had 26% and Shaw had 15%.

Robertson is standing for the list only this election, while Willis is contesting Ohariu.

Paul was re-elected to the council last year on a Green Party ticket, after being first elected in 2019 as the city’s second-youngest councillor after running as an independent. She was previously president of the Victoria University students’ association.

Asked to describe herself, Paul said she was “a disrupter, a strong advocate, I’m always batting for the underdog”.